~Some answers~

To the anonymous commenter who asked: I got my mauve sandals that I am wearing in the post "SEWWWWW Fun" at Payless shoes in Costa Rica back in 2005/2006. =)
To those who are dying to know what kind of cake I made that took 96 eggs (see #24 in post below)...
It was a pumpkin cake for God's Bible School camp meeting that filled 6 HUGE pans and fed 500 people! =)

~About Me~

I know that it is probably not good to "mix" FB and blogger, but since I cannot post pics right now, I'm going to post the 25 random things that I wrote for my FB.

"25 random things"
1. I DON'T NORMALLY like to do these type of things (don't have time), but I felt under pressure, so here goes. =)
2. I was born in Ohio, but spent the longest time of my younger life in Tennessee, thus I LOVE Tennessee.
3. I have moved 20 times in my life.
4. I started playing the piano when I was 4.
5. I always wanted to marry a preacher/pastor because my Mommy made being a pastor's wife look like so much fun!
6. I always wanted to be a Mommy. When I was younger I wanted 12 kids...but then as I got older I realized where they came from and decided that 4 was a perfect number. =)
7.God gave me the desires of my heart...I got to marry a wonderful preacher/pastor in June 1995 and God has blessed us with 4 precious children!
8. I LOVE to scrapbook and am basically all caught up thanks to my dear friend Luann Boardman helping me scrapbook all my pics up to 2004, and then the Lord has helped me keep up to date since then.
9. I love to play the piano!
10. I love to sing with my family.
11. I LOVE TO BAKE!!!
12. I love to have company over!
13. I love to spend time with my precious family.
14. I have lived in 8 different states.
15. I have lived in 3 different countries.
16. I have been in at least 47 of the 50 states.
17. I have been in 7 different countries.
18. I studied Spanish in Costa Rica for one year.
19. I have lived in Colombia for 2 years and 7 months.
20. I'm the baby, and have a dear sister and 2 great brothers.
21. I don't like to read much since I'd rather be doing something with my hands, but I do like to read books on how to be the best wife and Mommy I can be! =)
22. I speak Spanish and English.
23. My hair nearly touches the floor.
24. I once made a cake that took 96 eggs.
25. I want to draw closer to Jesus in 2009!!

~Ministry in sewing~

I have been doing some sewing for some Colombian girls. Jimmy's oldest daughter Lady is so tall and thin that she has a hard time finding skirts, so I decided to make some for her. We went with she and her family to the area that sells material and let her pick out 5 materials and we paid for them and then I made her 5 skirts. I also made 3 skirts each for a couple little girls at our church out of some scraps that I had.
~I fed Jimmy's family and our family lunch before we went to buy the material.~~Here we are all 10 of us in their car heading to get the material. =)~

~Lady is the one beside Kimberly on your right.~
~Elijah helping Mommy sew~
~Here are the first 2 skirts that I made for Lady.~
~Here is Lady wearing the pink skirt that I made for her.~

~And here are the last 3 skirts that I made for Lady.~
~Here are the 2 little girls that I made some skirts for.~

~Sewwwww fun~

~Sometimes ministry takes a different turn. When we were in Medellin in January, Alberto's wife (a pastor there) loaned me a skirt pattern. I didn't really have the time nor energy to make a skirt, but knew that Phillip was going back to Medellin in 2 weeks and that I needed to send her pattern back to her. I knew that she would ask Phillip if I had made a skirt off of her pattern, and would be VERY disappointed and not understand if he told her no. The problem was that it was a pattern for a patchwork skirt...but she had just traced out "patterns" on paper, saying "cut 1" or "cut 2" and had no instructions on which pieces went together, where to sew on the zipper, etc. Also, since she is much shorter than I, I had to add about 9 " to the length of each piece. (A lot of pieces were rounded and were harder to lengthen) Phillip (and the Lord) helped me cut it longer, and helped me figure it all out, and here is the finished product. As it washes it will "rag" on the edges more.~~Here is the skirt again. I'm happy with how it turned out. Alberto's wife was very happy to hear that I had made a skirt from her pattern. =)~
~About 2 years ago 2 dear ladies from the USA sent me some neat patterns, thread, buttons, etc. to use when I sew. However, right when I received them, I found out I was expecting little Elijah...and I got sooooo sick that I quit sewing. Then we headed to the USA to have him, and then when I got back here I had several adjustments with a new baby, and then started homeschooling 2 girls, etc. So...this loaned pattern from Alberto's wife made me get my sewing machine out and dust it off...and now, the girls and I have been having HomeEc. sewing times. =) I made Sarah this skirt from one of the patterns from one of the dear ladies in the USA. Thank you, Ladies.
~Sarah loves her new twirl skirt. =)~
I have also done some sewing for some girls here in Colombia. I'll post pics soon.

~Valentine's pics and Elijah is now 9 months~

I hope that all of y'all had a Happy Valentine's Day! We did! While Phillip was at his Bible class, the kids and I cleaned the house and Sarah rearranged the living room. Then we had fun hiding my love notes and some chocolates for Daddy and we made him his favorite cake...jello cake. He had fun finding the notes and chocolates (with Noah's help =), reading my Valentine's blog post, and enjoyed his cake too. ~My Jello cake that I made and decorated for Phillip.~~Phillip surprised me by bringing home this BEAUTIFUL Colombian flower arrangement! (You should be able to click on pic to make it larger.) This cost less than a dozen roses cost in the USA. Colombians take great pride in their flowers...their arrangements are truly WORKS OF ART!! Thank you, sweetheart for this gorgeous bouquet of flowers and for the sweet note too! I love you!~
~Our baby Elijah is now 9 months! Here are some pics that I took of him. Enjoy! =)~
~I love this outfit that Sis. Kennedy got for Elijah. I LOVE his little bow tie! First We took a few pics before we put on his knee socks and shoes.~
~Look, Mommy, I can stand up.=)~
~Those fingers still are pretty tasty.~
~Surely I can figure out how to untie this shoe.~
~Sitting all alone.~
~Just relaxing and taking it easy.~

~Kimberly took this cute picture of his little feet, shoes and socks.~~Looking happy.~
Trying to crawl away from that camera. =)~

~My favorite~

~Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart!~

~Walking this journey called Life...together!~

The other day Phillip gave me a complement. The first part was REALLY SWEET, the second part made us both laugh!
He said, "Heather, you are 10 times more beautiful today than when I married you, and you were gorgeous then...I can't wait to see you when you are 80! =D Hee! Hee!
~I love this picture of My Sweetheart, Phillip~
On Valentine's day in 1994 when Phillip and I were dating, he surprised me by writing 100 things that he loved about me and had my GBS roommate hide some in my dorm room, and then passed out the rest to my friends, teachers, etc. So everywhere I went that day, to class, to choir, to lunch, to work, etc. everyone was handing me little papers, little "love notes" from my sweetheart! How sweet and thoughtful! Now, about 15 years later, I plan to do something similar for my Phillip, and have our kids help me hide all of his notes. I could write LOTS more, but since I don't have a whole GBS campus to help me pass them out, I think I'll just write 50! =)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!!
I Love you because......
1. You LOVE God with all of your heart!
2. You are an awesome leader of our home.
3. You are a prayer warrior.
4. You are a student of God's Word.
5. You are a great preacher.
6. You LIVE what you preach!
7. You are helping the kids and I get to Heaven.
8. You were willing to go against any flak you might receive in order to obey God's calling to Colombia.
9. You wept before God about bringing your family to Colombia, until God gave you several promises that He was with us!
10. You are VERY GOOD LOOKING! =)
11. You are a great writer.
12. You are an Artist's artist!!!
13. You drew that BEAUTIFUL picture of me for our engagement gift!!
14. You are my BEST FRIEND!
15. You have a GREAT sense of humor and make the kids and I laugh a lot!
16. You take time to just talk to me...even until 2:00 AM sometimes.
17. You are the world's most caring Father!
18. You LOVE our kids more than words can describe!
19. You take time for our family days!
20. You are VERY GOOD LOOKING! =)
21. You always help our kid's birthdays to be special!
22. You always help our family days to be special and fun.
23. You help our kids with their difficult subjects in school when you can.
24. You are a hard worker.
25. You are a great carpenter!
~The Love of my life!~
26. YOU ARE THE BEST!!
27. You made that neat shelf on which to hang our Kimberly's first little clothes.
28. You love me just like I am, and you love me AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH.
29. You are patient.
30. You are VERY GOOD LOOKING! =)
31. You are kind.
32. You help me hang up the clothes, since we don't have a dryer.
33. You help me fold clothes, since we don't have a dryer.
34. You would be willing to get me a dryer, but the electric in our house couldn't handle it!
35. You treat me like a QUEEN...or a princess!
36. You spoil me rotten. =)
37. You always fix things around the house.
38. You are wise!
39. You are creative! You made me that BEAUTIFUL Stain glass lamp shade!
40. You are VERY GOOD LOOKING! =)
41. You love my food!
42. You complement my food!
43. You give me confidence.
44. You just keep getting better each year.
45. You are willing to say, "I'm sorry."
46. You don't hold it over my head when I have to say, "I'm sorry!
47. You are WONDERFUL!!
48. Let's make it to our 80th wedding anniversary...(we'd be 101 then...and if you can't wait to see me when I'm 80, just wrap your mind around when I'm 101. HA!!!! =)
49. You help me figure out patterns, recipes, etc. if I need help.
50. I could name lots more...but just let me say, that I'm forever GLAD that you asked me to marry you, and I'm forever GLAD that I said, Y-E-S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you sweetheart, way more now than I did on our wedding day. Life just keeps getting better with you!!
~Our family near a water fall here in Colombia.~
~H-A-P-P-Y V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E-S D-A-Y!!!!!!~

~One confused Noah~

Thank y'all for your sweet comments on our Abraham Lincoln celebration post. I figure that y'all would enjoy the below story about our Noah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This morning after our day yesterday of celebrating Abraham Lincoln's birthday...Noah said, "I thought that that guy was going to come last night." To which I replied, "Oh, our friend Carlos was going to come, but his car broke down." And then Noah said, "No, I mean the other guy." I said, "What other guy?" To which he replied, "The guy whose birthday we celebrated!" Poor kid, I thought that we explained good enough that this guy was no longer living but that he was a good man, and our former president so we were celebrating his birthday, but poor Noah was probably trying to figure out why we were celebrating a guy's birthday WITHOUT THE GUY!

~Our Abraham Lincoln celebration~

OK...so we celebrated Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday today. (See below post for more details!)
I went to google and googled "Abraham Lincoln Desserts" and an interesting sight came up.
We found out that Abraham Lincoln's favorite beverage was: WATER
He loved: FRESH FRUIT
And His all time favorite dessert was: APPLE PIE
So, I decided that we would make that for our dessert on his special day. (I know that his apple pie was probably a normal apple pie, but I've been wanting to make Fried apple pies for quite some time, so I made those!)

I was going to make a normal little lunch, but I wanted to make it sound special. So, as Noah and I were walking the mile to the grocery store (and the mile back) I was thinking of names for our lunch. This is what I came up with.

We ate:
Abe's Awesome Quesadillas
President's *pasabocas [Doritos] (*Spanish for snacks or finger foods)
16th President Banana salad
Slavery Abolisher Salsa
Oval Office Orangeade
American Apple Pie
(You can laugh, for we laughed at my goofy names too =)

Here are some pics.
~Our table with our food.~
~Since I have been sewing on our dinning room table, we made tables in the garage for our little "Abraham Lincoln Lunch". =) Phillip, Kimberly and my table.~
~Sarah and Noah's table~
~The kids drew a picture of "Abraham Lincoln". From L to R: Kimberly, Sarah, and Noah's version. =)~
~Yummy Fried apple pies...but I baked ours =)~
~American Apple pies~
We had a fun day!

~Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. President.~

Today our family is celebrating the 200th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Abraham Lincoln was always a respected man in my family growing up, so much so that my dear brother "Lincoln" is named after him.
Abraham Lincoln February 12th 1809-2009
I'll post pics of our little celebration hopefully tonight!

~Happy Birthday, Daddy~

Listen awhile and I'll tell you about my Dad.
He's the best Dad a girl has ever had.
He's medium height with graying hair
And we kids/grandkids know that he is always fair.

He is a preachers' preacher and loves God's Word
He's one of the best preachers I have ever heard.
He spends hours a day studying our heavenly road map
The men in our family often call his knowledge to tap.

He is a prayer warrior and loves to write poems
Has written many songs about families, God and homes.
He married Moma some 47 1/2 years ago
And He loves her WAY MORE now than then, I know!

After his love for Jesus, Moma and all 8 of us
(we 4 kids and our mates)
He loves all 16 of his grandkids...Wow! We need a family bus. =)
He's written 3 books and is working on his 4th (and more)
He was born in Ohio which is found in the North.

He has pastored in several different cultures...ie States
And his cars have displayed their many different plates.
He enjoys nature, hikes, mountains and taking walks
And likes it when we kids call home...for LONG talks.

One day in the Smokies he stared down a bear.
He's a carpenter...I well remember when he built some stairs. =)
He's my Daddy, He is the Best.
I'm glad that I was born into "his nest".

He uses his talents to help others
His friends, family, kids, Fathers and Mothers
To want to live for God and make Heaven our home
This is a "Thank you for being a sweet Daddy poem." =)
Heather Bryan Dickinson 2/10/09

Happy Birthday, Daddy...Feb. 11th!
Trust your day is as special as you are. We love and miss you!

~God chased a taxi down~

One day our family needed to do some running. We picked up some things in one area of town and then jumped into a taxi and went to another area. By the time we all 6 got out of the taxi, paid the driver, set up Elijah's stroller, hooked him in, etc. WE COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT ALLLLL OF OUR BAGS IN THE TRUNK OF THE TAXI, AND HE HAD ALREADY DRIVEN AWAY!!! Thankfully, soon there after Sarah asked me where her doll and her doll's diaper bag were and it reminded me and I yelled to Phillip that we had forgotten everything in the taxi and he took off running!! The people around us thought that we had been robbed and asked if we were ok. The kids and I stood on the side of the road and PRAYED HARD that God would help Phillip catch that taxi. Later Phillip told me that he was praying while he was running. He had his eye on one taxi thinking that it might be it, but wasn't for sure for the 1,000's of taxis here in Bogota nearly all look the same. He chased him through several lights, but the taxi was always one light ahead of Phillip. Finally about 6 blocks down, God helped Phillip to catch up. When the taxi driver saw Phillip he remembered all of our things in the back and was VERY RELIEVED that Phillip had caught up with him. (For he would have had no way of contacting us!) Meantime the kids and I are bombarding Heaven and straining our eyes to catch a glimpse of Daddy coming back to us. I finally saw him and told the kids...HERE COMES DADDY AND HE HAS ALL OF OUR BAGS IN HIS HANDS!!! Noah ran to meet Daddy and told him, "We've been praying ALLL DAY LONG that God would stop that taxi!" (It had only been about 15-20 mins. but to a 5 year old it had been ALLLLL DAY LONG! =) Praise the Lord that Phillip caught him, for in my diaper bag was my Colombian ID card which we paid lots of money, and spent 11 months working to get! Also, I thank the Lord that Phillip was with me, for if I would've been alone with the kids, I couldn't have left them to go chasing a taxi! God is awesome...all the time!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~We finally got to have Karen, Felipe, and Paula's Mommy over for dinner and we had a nice visit together. Please pray for Carolina.~When we first got to Colombia God sent Carlos and Gloria along to help us. Gloria's parents have been a huge help to us too. We invited them over for a meal to thank them for all they have done for us.~

~Gloria and I. Carlos had to work and couldn't come over for dinner.~

~Phillip and Jimmy at church. If you can see it, there is some bags/boxes of fruit, vegetables, and food on the floor in front of them. The first Sunday of every month Jimmy's church brings food to give to the poor. What a neat idea.~
~We had a lady named Cindy and her 2 small cute girls over for Sunday dinner, along with Felipe, Paula and Juan Martin.~
~Cindy and I~
~After they all left...I got to do a rare thing...take a Sunday afternoon nap. =)~

God is working here in Colombia...and for that we want to PRAISE HIM!!!!